ESI director and Senior IPC Fellow Gerald Knaus was invited to speak at Stiftung Meractor's first Mercator Salon to discuss with the German professor Hans Vorländer, director of the Center for the Study of of Constitutionalism and Democracy at Dresden University, the challenge by new populist movements across Europe to democratic principles such as the separation of powers, pluarlism, freedom of press, and parliamentarism. They debated the nature of the challenge, and how to adress it on the European as well as the national level. They also gave a joint interview to the WAZ daily newspaper.